Turkey into final against USA

(AFP)
Semih Erden's block on Novica Velickovic's last-second shot handed Turkey a famous 83-82 victory over Serbia and a place in Sunday's world basketball championships final where they'll face the USA.

Carried on the support of delirious sell-out crowds in every game they have played to date, Turkey needed more than just that to get past a talented young Serbian side.
While Serbia shared the workload in the opening quarter it was Toronto Raptor Hidayet Turkoglu doing most of the work for Turkey, scoring nine of his side's opening quarter 17 points. However, it was not enough to give Turkey the lead, with Serbia up 20-17 when the quarter ended. The game continued in similar fashion throughout the second-quarter, much to the crowd's displeasure as Serbia's lead continued to grow with the former Yugoslav state up 42-35 at half-time.
The Turks managed to tie the scores up twice before Serbia regained some control to take a 63-60 lead into the final quarter.
However the advantage would not hold for Serbia with a Kerem Tunceri layup with just over three minutes remaining giving Turkey the lead for the first time since the first quarter.
But with just four seconds remaining Velickovic had Serbia back in front by a point (82-81) forcing a Turkey timeout. The timeout worked with Tunceri making another crucial layup with less than a second remaining.
Serbia took one last timeout but the play resulting from the team talk failed with Velickovic's shot blocked by Erden handing Turkey victory.
Hidayet would end the night as Turkey's leading point-scorer with 16 points. Omer Onan with 14 points, along with Tunceri and Ender Arslan who both finished 12 points were the other outstanding Turkish players. Marko Keselj was the best of the Serbs with a game-high 18 points.
Earlier, the US had cruised into the final with a 89-74 win over Lithuania.